Women's hockey top 10 tracker: Playing out to the playoffs, and Laurier vs. Guelph

Laurier at Guelph is the one to watch this weekend, especially with its being the only non-Q matchup between above-average teams. It's also worth keeping an eye on Carleton at McGill, even if the outcome is likely known.

There are very few games left in the season, nearly rendering the exercise of "who's the better team?" redundant. That is, after all, what the playoffs are for. Below, next to the teams who aren't in first place in their conference, we've included how many points behind the leader (or some other team of interest) they are, how many more games they have to make up that difference, and how many games in hand they have.

The top 10 is based on SRS as usual, save for one adjustment that brought St. F-X into the 10th spot at the expense of the Gee-Gees, who were 9th. Including three teams in a five-team league is already enough. The latest CIS rankings are in parentheses.

McGill (1): At Carleton on Saturday.

Laurier (2): At Brock and Guelph, starting Saturday.

Montreal (10): Host Ottawa. They are 5 points behind McGill with four games to go, and the Martlets have two in hand.

Alberta (3): Idle. They've pretty well clinched first place; although, with only two games between now and February 19th, when they play second-place Manitoba, there will no doubt be some armchair coaches wondering how the extended idle periods will affect their ability to compete 100%.

Carleton (NR): McGill Saturday, at Concordia the next day. Have no hope of catching McGill, but are 13 points down on Montreal, with seven to play, and three in hand (including two to play against Concordia).

Queen's (9): Host last-place UOIT for two. Ten points behind the Hawks, with six to play but one in hand for Laurier.

York (7): At Western and Windsor. Identical situation to Queen's except they're one more point back.

Guelph (NR): Welcome Waterloo and Laurier. First place is out of reach, but second is only three points away, and third merely two. Both York and Queen's have an extra game to play, however.

Moncton (4): Friday vs. UPEI, then Sunday at SMU. They're technically behind St. F-X in the standings if not the rankings, but only by two points and with eight games left, two more than the X-Women, that's a very easy gap to close.